Campus, News

BU sees increase in ratings on Times Higher Education

Not long after Boston University saw a jump in college rankings in the U.S. News and World Report’s National University Rankings, BU has again seen an improvement in its stance among other universities around the world.

The Times Higher Education 2013-14 World University Rankings Top 400, released Thursday, show BU at 50th place, a four-spot jump from its ranking at 54th place in the 2012-13 rankings.

“It [the jump in rankings] is [due to] an effort across the board at the university, specifically the president’s work on putting together a strategic plan seven years ago, following it, and keeping the administration and faculty aware of and in partnership with the efforts to improve the university,” BU spokesman Colin Riley said.

The World University Rankings, powered by Thomson Reuters, annually ranks colleges and universities around the world. Each school is given a score from 1 to 100, based on thirteen different performance indicators in the categories of teaching, research, citations, industry income and international outlook[4] , according to the website.

BU scored highest in the areas of teaching and citations, with an overall score of 63.5.

Harvard University ranked second overall, while Massachusetts Institute of Technology took fifth place. Other notable rankings of area schools include Brown University at 52nd place and Tufts University at 80th place.

BU experienced its last jump in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings two years ago, when it went from being ranked 59th in the 2010-11 rankings, to 54th in the 2011-12 rankings.

Riley said while rankings cannot truly measure the value of the work of students and faculty at BU, it is nice to see BU among schools of a high calibre.

“No ranking is going to fully capture every unique aspect of BU, but certainly being recognized and being one of those schools that it’s listed among is really very gratifying,” he said.

In September, BU jumped ten spots in the U.S. News and World Report’s National University Ranking from 51st place in the 2012-13 rankings to 41st place in the 2013-14 rankings.

BU’s jump in rankings, both at the national and international levels, to spots within the top 50 reaffirm the university’s goals and shows BU is moving in the right direction, Riley said.

“Looking among those schools and looking at being in the top 50 in any type of ranking among thousands of schools, you realize it takes a lot even to gain a single spot,” he said.

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